


Devil at Death's Door

by verus_caelum



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: 3x24 AU, Angst, Chloe finds out, Descriptions of blood and injury, Devil form, F/M, Lightbringer, Near Death Situations, Reveal, post-S3, prayers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 16:53:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29762694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verus_caelum/pseuds/verus_caelum
Summary: Lucifer’s always claimed he’s the Devil – but when she sees him standing over the body of her ex, red skin and all, it just can’t be him right? None of that’s real… But what is real is her partner in front of her, very much in pain and nearly dying. Celestial crises aside, her partner needs help – and Devil or not, she doesn’t think she could take losing him.Now, Chloe must navigate the new celestial world she’s been thrown into, all the while learning how to accept her partner as the literal Devil.
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar
Comments: 18
Kudos: 98





	1. You're Safe

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, here we go – attempting a longer fic than usual so it’s a bit trial and error, but I do hope it turns out well and you all enjoy it! It’s a work in progress and chapters will be posted as I go but it is my current project and won’t be abandoned. Feedback is welcome and very much appreciated!! <3
> 
> Depending on how this fic turns out, I may turn it into a series of where it goes from here and introducing more characters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This first chapter is a bit of set up and follows 3x24, the next chapter will start to diverge a bit more and get into the story :)

Her awareness begins drifting back to her, the blazing midday light forcing her eyes to flutter open. She’s aware of a warm hand – Lucifer’s - on her chest, gently probing where the bullet had impacted against her vest… the memories float back to her, how Pierce had shot at her, shot at _them_ … and Lucifer had somehow gotten them out of there. _But where are they now?_ Her gaze wanders, her vision a haze, until landing on him hovering above her, concern clearly written across his face. She blinks up at him in confusion, fumbling her hand over his to lower the collar of her shirt, exposing where the bullet remains lodged in her vest.

“What happened?” she struggles to ask, her voice not coming out more than a weak whisper.

“You’re safe,” he sighs in relief, voice equally gentle. “That’s all that matters.”

She quickly realizes that he doesn’t in fact give her an answer, causing her concern to build faster. _What really had happened? Pierce was shooting at her one second… and the next, they were both out of harm’s way… on the roof? How long was she out for? How did Lucifer possibly get her up there that fast?_ “We need to find Pierce,” she voices aloud, pushing the endless questions to the back of her mind, determined to focus on the situation at hand. Those could come later… right now she was concerned with getting Lucifer and herself out of this situation.

She pushes herself up to a sitting position as Lucifer leans back, her gaze spanning across the skyline as she takes in the city around her. There’s an almost peaceful air to it, an ordinary beautiful day, completely unaware of the havoc Pierce and his men are causing not far from here. She hears Lucifer take a step back behind her, the scuff of his shoes against the concrete making it apparent he’s resumed a standing position. Suddenly, a _whooshing_ noise travels through the air – and then nothing.

She turns hesitantly, still feeling shaky and not quite herself, to find Lucifer gone behind her, left with nothing but the oddly still silence hanging in the air. _Where exactly did he go? It isn’t possible to disappear that fast unless he… did she really want to start entertaining that possibility? But, well… maybe it’s time she faced what she’s been trying to deny this entire time…_

She places her hands out in front of her, trying to stabilize herself as she tentatively raises herself on her feet. At that moment, her phone rings, and she figures it’s Dan and Ella checking up on her without even looking at her phone. She lets out a sigh and answers right away, trying to figure out what to say when she doesn’t even know what’s going on herself.

“Chloe, it’s a trap,” Dan’s voice rings out over the call, urgent and strained.

“I know, I know. We had to find out the hard way… Pierce, he tried to kill us.” _Pierce, the man she almost married, the man she thought she knew – how had she gotten that so wrong?_

“What? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I am,” she quickly responds, attempting to alleviate the panic she hears in his tone. “I don’t know how, but I am.” _But that isn’t true, is it? If it turns out Lucifer has been telling the truth the entire time, then she has a pretty good idea of what happened – but could she really…_ “Or maybe I do know. Maybe I’ve been avoiding the biggest truth this whole-“

A shot rings out suddenly - multiple shots - interrupting her sentence and bringing her back to reality. There’s no doubt that meant Lucifer had reached Pierce by now, leaving her to only hope those shots weren’t directed at him.

“I have to go,” she gasps, more to herself than him as she lowers the phone and ends the call, not registering Dan’s words of caution on the other end.

Her feet spur into motion before her mind can catch up, driving her towards the exit door across the roof. She grasps onto the handle and thanks _whoever_ that it’s unlocked, easily turning under her hand. She looks down the flights of stairs before her, shadowed in darkness save for the tapered length of light streaming in behind her. The door drifts to a close behind her, its heavy click resonating in the walls around her, leaving the stairs to only be illuminated by a few sparse lights, harshly lighting her surroundings from several floors below.

She silently curses herself for having to be left at the top of a building – sure, it probably meant she’s safer, farther from harm, but it certainly made catching up to Lucifer that much harder. _How had he gotten back to Pierce so quickly?_ Yet another question to add to the maelstrom already raging in her mind. Her breaths feel heavy, constricted by the bruise that was no doubt forming near her collarbone. But she couldn’t focus on that now – she has to push on. She practically takes the steps several at a time, trying her best to rush down the flights without causing further harm – the last thing she needs right now is a sprained ankle.

The floors pass by her quickly as she travels farther and farther down, drawing nearer to the battle that was likely going on between Lucifer and Pierce – _why did he always put himself in dangerous situations, with no regard for his own well-being? Then again, if he is who he says he is- no, can’t go there right now…_

A pained scream interrupts her thoughts, echoing off the walls around her – _Lucifer’s._ She makes her feet move even faster, only a few floors away now, hoping and praying (she’s starting to second-guess that one) that Lucifer isn’t injured or worse… She hears them talking now, Lucifer and Pierce, but she can’t quite make out what they’re saying, voices drowned by the adrenaline pumping through her veins and the blood rushing in her ears.

The eerie silence hits her first as she makes her way down the final flight, a sudden stillness juxtaposed to the pain and struggles she had just heard… making her question if it had actually happened. She faces the expansive room in which she was shot mere minutes ago, now devoid of the gunfire from Pierce’s men. Instead, her eyes first catch the state of the room, the chaos and destruction which had descended upon it while she was gone – shattered glass lain across the floor, dust settling on the ground from the columns and walls, blood coating all surfaces and… _feathers?_ Before she can think further upon it, she sees Pierce’s body laying on the ground – seems she hadn’t imagined the struggle after all, and that Pierce hadn’t been the victor. She knows she should be more distraught, more in shock, but her stomach only twists at thinking of what had almost been – how she had almost let this man into her life, the same man who had killed Charlotte, who was willing to kill her without a second thought… the thought of it all almost being over, of Trixie growing up without a mother, makes the situation all that more real, twisting the fear and worry within her.

But she is still alive, and that makes her release a breath of relief, even faced with the scene before her. Too is that relief strengthened when she sees Lucifer standing over Pierce, looking down at him from his crouched position, the tension lifting off her shoulders as she realizes he is okay… he’s safe and alive and so is she… they made it through after all… somehow.

She’s just about to ask her partner what had happened and if he is truly alright when everything changes.

A straightening of his cuffs.

An extension of his legs.

A turn towards her.

A glance her way.

A gasp.

A step backwards.

And everything changes.

Before her no longer stands her partner… but no, it must be. Except, he doesn’t look like how he usually does. Not like the annoying consultant who works by her side every day. Not like the partner who always has her back. Not like the man she was just beginning to realize she was falling in l-

No, instead his face is red and scarred, his hands the same, as if his entire body had been burned but his clothes remained unaffected.

And it hits her.

_Always the truth, Detective._

He’s never lied.

Which means that her partner… her partner is…

It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, right? She was even considering it herself a few moments ago.

But considering the possibility and seeing proof are completely different things. 

And now she certainly has proof; he stands before her, a physical representation of the impossible.

There’s no denying it.

Her partner is the Devil.

She chances a glance directly at him now, a look of relief upon his face quickly morphing into confusion as he studies her, as if he… _does he not realize he looks any different right now?_

He takes a stride forward. And another. 

It gets harder and harder to breathe.

But then she sees the moment realization crashes over him. When his eyes catch a glimpse of his now reddened hand, emotions quickly passing over his face that can only be described as… _terror._

He looks back to her and it’s impossible to miss it in his eyes – his eyes that are so red and harsh and unlike the familiar warm depths she’s used to. But she still sees him, and right now she recognizes one thing above all others lingering there: _fear. Of her._ Of how she will react.

And how is she reacting? She’s not even sure, confirmation of what he had been saying this entire time yet proof of the impossible mixing together in her mind.

It’s oddly relieving in some aspects – that he’s not actually delusional, that he’s always told her the truth, that he actually has been honest with her this entire time. And yet, the shock is conquering all – proof that the Devil and Hell and Heaven and God and _who knows_ what else is real. A new world crashing down around her – one full of demons and angels and cosmic forces she had never truly believed in. But there is no doubting it now – not even if she wanted to… there is no way to blissfully ignore this earth-shattering revelation.

“Detective?” he then asks shakily.

And it’s still him. It’s still his voice.

But her mind cannot connect the two quickly enough – cannot settle the man she knows with the one before her. It’s _him_ – she knows this and she knows her partner, she truly does, but she can’t help the suffocating feeling of everything she had ever thought being wrong, of everything she thought for certain hadn’t existed clearly being true now… the shock that crowds her and makes her feel like there’s not enough air around her, blocking out all rational thought and reason… a primitive fear rising up within her without her control.

“It’s all true,” is all she is able to get it, a bare whisper.

And she hates how weak her voice sounds, how full of fear… but she can’t help it, she’s _terrified_ … She’s terrified and she thinks that some part of her mind realizes it’s not fear _of him_ but just… just _everything._

All she knows is the Devil is standing before her… and trying to get her brain and her body’s reaction past that seems to prove impossible.

So in shock that she is, she doesn’t even notice the pool of red spreading against his formerly pristine shirt at first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ch 2 is complete and will be posted soon, rest is still in progress and will be posted as they are finished :)


	2. Something Divine

Lucifer takes another step forward, and even this small movement is all it takes for reality to come rushing back. He releases an agonizing noise, his right hand instantly moving to cover his abdomen. Glancing down, he pulls back his hand, now glistening with the sickening sight of blood – _his_ blood – a shade darker than his skin. He looks back up to her, catching her stare, a hopelessness and fear swirling in his eyes. This is all he is able to do before the pain seemingly becomes too much, as his legs give out and he falls gracelessly to his knees on the floor.

The sight before her snaps Chloe out of her shock, the world harshly returning to focus around her – the sound of LA traffic below, the wind gusting in through the shattered window behind her, the awful moan of pain Lucifer lets loose sharply against the room’s silence. The sound pulls at her soul, heart wrenching in its cries and the harrowing evidence of his pain.

She rushes forward and all she sees right now is her partner – her _partner_ who is in pain and is injured and needs her help. She grabs a hold of his arms before he can fall to the ground completely, his head hanging down as he struggles to retain his weak hold on consciousness. His hand still remains on his abdomen, loosely and ineffectively covering his wound, as the patch of red only seems to further grow against his shirt. Closer now, she hears his shallow exhales as he breathes shakily, feels the slight tremble wracking his body that he attempts to hide.

Up close, his form seems so much more terrifying – where she is able to see every jagged scar that wraps around his neck and head, travelling all the way down to his hands. She feels his intense heat even through the arm of his suit jacket – an unearthly warmth as she feels the fear prickling at her spine. _Run,_ it tells her.

But this is Lucifer. The Lucifer she knows. The Lucifer who is her best friend and the best partner she’s ever had. And she knows for damn sure that she’s not going to abandon him – not when he needs her. If the situation was reversed and _she_ was the injured one, she knows Lucifer would stop at nothing to protect her.

Yet, the longer she looks, the fear begins to dissipate and instead worry and concern washes over her. The dark, coarse skin looks… _painful,_ if she’s being honest. Not to mention the wound bleeding in his abdomen. _Did this form hurt him? Was that part of what pains him now? Or is the pain sourced from his wound? Could the Devil actually die from this?_ She realizes her grip grows tighter, digging into his forearm without her notice, and shakes herself from her thoughts. She needs to focus right now, Lucifer needs her, and she hopes that she can do something, _anything,_ to help him – there will be plenty of time to panic about her world being upturned later.

Or at least she hopes. His trembling seems to have increased tremendously now, the blood flowing from the wound in his abdomen. He raises his head to her weakly, meeting her eyes as she freezes. Her breath gets caught in her chest, a paralyzing feeling of being caught in the Devil’s gaze. His red eyes seem to bore into her, the blood freezing in her veins.

But no… this is still Lucifer. She can see it in his eyes if she can bear to surface from the flood of primitive fear drowning her for a moment. And it’s not a predatory, hostile gaze that she captures – it is one full of terror, pain, regret, and the tiniest shimmer of hope dancing in the depths. His eyes are brimming with an ancient trauma, millennia of suffering coming to the surface, and she can’t bear to see that look in his eyes. In her _partner’s_ eyes.

Lucifer’s hold begins to slacken beneath her, his eyes becoming unfocused and distant, noticeable even as unfamiliar their color. His breaths become more a struggle with each he takes, his body gradually becoming limp as he begins to sink to the floor. Despite her attempts, she is not able to hold him up as he succumbs to the pain afflicting his body.

“Lucifer! Lucifer, are you okay?” she asks desperately, a trembling to her voice unrelated to his current form. She waits and waits but he gives her no answer, his eyelids slowly drooping shut as he lay on the floor.

“Lucifer?”

No response.

No movement.

She panics.

_Apply pressure to the wound._ She can do that, she needs to be able to save him. Moving her hands to his abdomen, she presses down firmly, trying to stop the bleeding. But it doesn’t seem to be working. The blood continues to flow forth, coating her hands but showing no signs of slowing. It becomes harder to breathe once again, as if the air has been sucked from her lungs, as her mind races through the possibilities. They overwhelm her, suffocating her, drowning her and she thinks – _What if it’s too late? What if he dies?_

She inhales forcefully, attempting to fill her chest with as much air as she can, willing away the panic which seizes her. She removes one hand to raise it to his neck, looking for a pulse because he seems so still, so unlike the Lucifer she knows, and she doesn’t know what she would do if-

A weak pulse thrums against her fingers and she releases a small breath of relief. There’s still time. She looks around, inhaling and exhaling as she tries to refocus her brain. She blinks past the tears filling her eyes, only serving to let them trail down her cheek. Lucifer needs her… he’s _dying_ – and she feels completely useless. Her partner is relying on her and there’s not a thing she can do. Does her training even apply to the Devil? Or is he a being beyond such human solutions? And she can’t exactly call for help – other humans (that’s a term she would have to get used to) seeing Lucifer in his Devil form seems like it would do more harm than help. 

A loud _whooshing_ interrupts her thoughts, forceful winds pushing against her back – she vaguely identifies the sound as familiar, but her body isn’t allowing her to divert her energy to anything else, consumed by her fear-driven state.

“Luci?” she recognizes Amenadiel’s voice behind her, not turning to look at him as she’s too focused on Lucifer in front of her. Lucifer lying so still and quietly, a pale, gaunt quality to his features even in this form. Her tears fall faster as Amenadiel rushes to her side, grabbing onto Lucifer’s shoulder.

“Luci?” he says again, more broken than before. He looks to Chloe for explanation, but anything she could say seems to get caught in her throat, unable to force the words past her lips.

She tries to gather words together, anything she can push past the maelstrom of emotions crashing over her. “He’s… he’s still alive, I think. He’s h-hurt and, and I don’t know what to do, nothing, nothing’s working.” Her voice is even more unsteady than she thought it would be, voice cracked through her tears.

He holds out his hands gently and softly tells her, “Chloe, I know this is a lot to handle right now, but you need to breathe. Trust me, we’ll figure out how to fix this. We still have a chance to save him, but we need to get out of here.”

His firm words begin to cut through her panic, allowing her to breathe shakily as she nods repeatedly. Hearing it from someone else is what gets through to her. “You’re right,” she says, her voice stronger than before. “What do we do?”

Amenadiel takes a steadying breath, worriedly glancing to Lucifer and returning his hand to his brother’s shoulder. “Well, do you know what happened? How he got injured?”

She shakes her head, feeling entirely unhelpful, but tries to recount her scattered memories as best as she can. “We came here and Pierce ambushed us, it was a trap, and his men started shooting at us. Lucifer saved me, somehow… got me away and to the roof. Next thing I know, Lucifer is gone and I hear shots downstairs…” She pauses as the detail returns, looking down to his shirt in confusion as she indeed notices several bullet holes she had missed before, yet none of them oozing blood like his abdominal wound.

“Then what?” he prompts her to continue.

“I ran down here as fast as I could, I heard Lucifer and Pierce fighting and it sounded like Lucifer got hurt. And when I came down here, Pierce was already down and then, then I saw him…”

Amenadiel nods reassuringly, saving her from having to further explain. Meanwhile, he glances around the destroyed room, eyes landing on a blood-tipped blade lying across the floor. She follows his gaze and sees it too – recognizes it, even, as _Maze’s_ blade. _How did that get here?_

He sucks in a sharp breath beside her and looks back to Lucifer, unconscious but still breathing, if not shallowly. Concern etches even deeper upon his face as he seems to realize something. “He was injured by a Hell-forged blade – this is more serious than I thought. I thought it was just because…” he trails off as he looks to her, making her feel as if she’s missing some important information.

“What does that mean?”

“It means that even when he’s immortal, the steel will still hurt him, can kill him even. We need to get him out of here and fast.”

“Okay, do you have a plan? Is there something that can heal him?”

Amenadiel releases a heavy sigh as he confesses, “I don’t know.” He pauses to look around then starts again. “Let’s get him back to Lux for now, I’ll figure out something. But as for healing, well… it would take something divine to heal him.”

_Something divine?_ she wonders, sounding as if the chances of him making it out of this, of him surviving, are becoming slimmer, slipping from her grasp. Chloe tries to maintain the control on her emotions, realizing the last thing she needs is to break down again. This is far more important – they need to save Lucifer.

“I can get him back to Lux, but you need to get out of here.” He continues, unaware of her increasingly fragile hold on her thoughts and composure. “Your car is here, right? Are you able to drive and meet us at the penthouse?”

She visibly calms herself and nods, knowing she will be able to make the drive long as she doesn’t overthink the situation. Having something to do, a plan, may even help steady her further.

He bends down to gain a grip on Lucifer, one hand coming behind his back as the other rests beneath his legs. Raising again, he holds onto his brother seemingly effortlessly, yet carefully as if he may break. She can see how concerned Amenadiel is, likely not used to seeing his brother so weak and holding onto fading life.

Looking at Lucifer once again, she realizes he’s rapidly getting worse, and she works to hold back the flood of emotions waiting to burst. Her feet begin to move towards the exit, finally unfrozen from the place they had been planted, but pauses before she can make it there.

Chloe glances around nervously at the destruction around her, Pierce’s body still at the farther end of the room, the crime scene covered in blood and feathers everywhere. 

“Don’t worry about this – I’ll come back and handle it. Just go,” Amenadiel answers, catching her concern.

She only nods numbly, unsure if she can really react to anything after all that’s happened, only able to feel the hammering of her heart in her chest and the painful, broken breaths leaving her chest. She looks back to Amenadiel and he gives her a look of reassurance. Before she has another chance to look at the destruction around her, she rushes out focusing on one thing only: getting to Lux.

* * *

The second she makes it to her car, she breaks down. The tears come freely now, waves of shock and pain and worry crashing over her simultaneously from everything she had just witnessed. Within a matter of hours, her entire life – and now her entire world – has completely changed. Her grip tightens on the steering wheel until her knuckles turn white, burning from the tension. 

She opens her eyes and lifts her head from where it had fallen – there’s no time to break down now. And so, she forces the emotions down and focuses on what she has to do now, calling forth a calm façade she uses for every case. Lucifer needs her.

Chloe turns the key and the engine roars to life as she pulls onto the street. She switches the siren on and races through traffic, something in the back of her mind wincing at the likely abuse of power. But this is an emergency – Lucifer, her partner, the _Devil,_ is injured… and who knows _if_ he’ll recover, he was struggling to grasp onto life when she left him. _Please be okay._

Though he’s the Devil – surely he can’t die so easily? Yet the worry etched across Amenadiel’s face tells her otherwise. And she had seen him bleed plenty of times – for claiming immortality, he seems to be much more human than even he recognizes. 

She could feel the questions overwhelming her, the shock boiling up within her – the fact that Heaven and Hell _truly_ exist, that the Devil is her partner – she doesn’t know how to accept this new reality without shutting down completely. So, she pushes it aside to deal with another time – debating the intricacies of an entirely new world could come later. And well, did it really change much? Her perception, for sure… she never was one to believe in greater powers or the afterlife. She doesn’t really have a choice but to believe in God now, right? Though, she’s no stranger to abnormal occurrences after having Lucifer for a partner for so long. She’s still a detective. He’s still her partner, her _best friend_ – Devil or no. She’ll focus on that, the few constants amidst the swirling current of change in her life.

Before she knows it, she’s pulling up beside Lux and rushing out of her car before it’s barely in park. She hurries past the bouncer who doesn’t give her a second glance, running through the empty club and into the elevator, frantically pushing the button to go up to the penthouse.

She imagines Amenadiel and Lucifer are already here, given how he told her to leave and meet them here. She’s not sure how they would get here so fast, though it was probably the same way Lucifer had disappeared from the roof so quickly – _angel and all._ The elevator seems to take an eternity to rise up to the penthouse, leaving her alone with her thoughts in the silence. 

Lucifer is _the_ Lucifer… had been this entire time. Her partner for all these years happens to be the Devil – and well, he told her exactly that how many times now? But she had brushed it off; delusions, she said; only metaphors. Seems pretty foolish now, huh? She always believed him when he said he didn’t lie, and she could tell he was being honest – but in the sense that he was telling _his_ truth. The metaphors merely covered the complicated past of his childhood and complex family relationships. That still wasn’t exactly untrue, though she never could have imagined it on this scale.

He just acts so… _human._ She sees how affected he is by particular cases, his steadfast belief in punishment and justice… how compassionate and caring he can unknowingly be. She knows that deep down, regardless of his title, that he is _good._ She knows her partner and who he is. And surely none of it was an act – she knows Lucifer far too well by now to believe otherwise. He’s the most genuine and honest person she’s ever met, down to his character and actions.

Chloe briefly wonders what she’ll see when she steps out of the elevator. Will he still be in his Devil form? Will he be bleeding even more, still unconscious? She almost wishes he’ll be back to looking how he normally does, all cavalier and invincible, bouncing back from near death as if it were just a minor inconvenience. He’ll laugh it off and be back to being his normal self, full of life and energy. _I’m the Devil, did you expect a little death to keep me down?_ he’ll say, and she’ll be shocked by the realization of the absolute truth behind his jokes and metaphors, yet so overcome with relief it won’t bother her. They’ll talk it out and he’ll still be the same old Lucifer she knows. Because he’s still the partner she’s come to know, the partner she knows. He’ll be alive and well, and everything can go back to normal – with the addition of a bit of the supernatural. 

But she knows even that’s too much to ask for. She watched him collapse to the ground as the blood poured from his wound. Saw the life slowly draining out of him as he battled to stay conscious. Felt the trembling in his limbs and saw the fear in his eyes.

He’s dying and getting worse by the second. They need to find a way to save him – something, _anything._

Because she doesn’t think she could take losing him. Not after all this. Not after all they’ve been through.

He’s nearly died before and against all odds, has come out the other side no worse for wear. This has to be the same, just like all the other times.

Devil or not, she cares for him far too deeply to let him go now…

The elevator doors slide open, gradually revealing the penthouse as more and more comes into view. There’s no turning back now… it’s time to face her new reality.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The rest of the story is outlined and the chapters will be posted as they are written :) The chapter count may change but will likely stay about 10


End file.
